They live deep within the running community and may not actually know that they are runpushers, but these people are very real. They tend to be very unassuming types, affable, friendly and extremely lovely to talk to. They can often be quite inspiring without meaning to be, they’re just there quietly doing their thing, sewing the seed of belief in the back of your mind.

I appear to have fallen in with a herd of runpushers though I’m not sure that’s the right name for a collective! They are a small crew, a family. I have been seamlessly assimilated into the fold. It’s taken months for me to realise this, I may have even become an active runpusher myself, I honestly don’t know.

Words like “It’ll be fun”, “Just a few laps”, “it’s not that far really” are all commonplace.

Everything is taken within the runpushers stride. It is quite fascinating to study just how normalised things have become. Entering races, particularly marathons, is just something you do every payday. One a month is acceptable, maybe a couple if you are feeling particularly frivolous. They all get logged into a spreadsheet too, if you are so inclined.

Be warned though, downloading a spreadsheet and actively filling it in is a rocky slope to admitting working on a bigger goal, we won’t go there just yet….